Of the thousands of runners who participated in the Go! St. Louis Half Marathon in downtown St. Louis on April 8, two OHS students, Emma Mueller (11) and Alison Novara (10), finished among the best.

Mueller placed first among all participants in the Students on the Go program, and Novara placed fourth.

After Mueller finished sixth the previous two years, she finally earned her medal for being in the top five runners in the program. Additionally, she placed second among all runners in the 14-19 age group.

Mueller finished the race with a time of 1:38:44, which beat her personal best by four minutes.

“I am very happy with my results,” said Mueller. “My goal was to run under 1:40:00.”

Novara ran the race for the second time this year, and she improved her previous time by 30 minutes. She finished in fourth place, with a time of 1:48:00.

“I was really proud and quite honestly, shocked, about my results,” said Novara. “My goal was to get at least under two hours and I didn’t think it was achievable.”
Novara hopes to keep improving her time for the Go! St. Louis Half Marathon in future years and hopes the track team will qualify for state this season.

Mueller plans to participate in the Students on the Go program during her senior year to further improve her time. Additionally, she hopes to qualify for sectionals this track season, run a 5k in under 20 minutes, and qualify for state during cross country in the fall. She plans to run both cross country and track in college.